A while ago just before Christmas when the monsoon was at its fiercest, one doesn't leave the house without being equipped with a sturdy umbrella; better still if you have knee high boots (if not the fashionable kind, the SAF one should suffice) to weather any flood. Now, the monsoon season has dried up and graduated into a period of strong chilly wind all day that causes doors to slam, wind chimes to go berserk and one's hair to tousle into an unceremonious mess. So, it really blows, literally.

The tousled hair notwithstanding, all is good in my world because without the rain I can now run with some semblance of regularity. Whenever I don't work OT/give tuition after work/have dinner late for various reasons these days, I will run. Nothing like a good 10km at the end of a crappy day at work to dispel that sluggishness and decadent feeling. Plus running in the winter-ish weather is very nice too. You don't feel wet and sticky or in need of that dri-fit attire at all. Reminds me of those days in Taiwan Jingbei camp.

There's another thing I always enjoy about running - it gives me time to think. For the whole one hour, I will be all alone; there is no one to interact with me, no computer to distract me and no handphone to invade my privacy. My brain goes into hyperdrive, probably due to all that blood circulation, and I think a lot. I think about an assortment of things, most of which I will not or have no time for in my normal non-running state. I think more clearly, with a mind that is more open, and sometimes, I get enlightened after the run, albeit only temporarily.

Sometimes I run around the neighbourhood, but seeing that I live in an area surrounded by hills and hence undulated with slopes which are bad for the momentum, I usually venture farther beyond the boundaries of my estate to places like Orchard, Chinatown and Shenton Way, just to name the more frequented few. And I got some cheap thrill out of it. Try taking the route that runs parallel to the railway leading to the Tanjong Pagar train station at night, or the dimly-lit street between the rows of shophouses in Chinatown where nobody lives. Admittedly, it was eerie, potentially dangerous and I was a little scared, but being scared produces the adrenaline that I need for the kilometres further, so I am not complaining.

Come to think of it, I have really come a long way from those days in school when I hated the annual cross country/2.4km NAPFA run with every fibre in my body. I would walk the latter and the former, I would manufacture excuses not to attend. NS has indeed changed me as far as running is concerned. And that being possibly the only thing I benefited from those 22 months, I really don't want to lose it. I detest the slacker that I used to be as much as I detested running then, and I never want to return to that old self. Which explains my post-NS running routine now.

That being said, I will have to put a stop to running for a few days because of a bruise on my toe. How it came about I do not know, but it pains whenever I put on covered shoe and walk so I am wondering what I should wear to work tomorrow.

In other news, we'll be gathering at Jamie's later today to watch the finals. How fun. (No, not the ASEAN football championship, duh)